Subcycles: Multitouch music controller

Subcycles is a sound controller application that [Christian] is using on the third multitouch display that he built. The screen is a sheet of acrylic in an aluminum frame. The image is rear projected onto an area covered with Digiline dispersion film. As with other projects that use the Community Core Vision package, a PS3 eye camera captures the touch information.

This build does a great job of including the audience in what the musician on stage is doing. [Chris] points out that the sight of artists staring at laptops on stage is becoming more and more common. The ‘Minority Report’-like interface that Subcycles uses makes not just for interesting music, but for an added visual reinforcement to the live part of the performance.

16 thoughts on “Subcycles: Multitouch music controller”

Ugggg… This is very cool, and I know that the guy was trying to show what it can do, but damn. There were times when it sounded like music, then the rest of it sounded like a few bands getting pushed down the stairs.

A small amount of restraint can turn this into really cool music rather than a turrets fit.

Does it look to anyone else that it’s not doing a whole lot when he touches. I mean, the physical controls show a great change in music, but as for the touch screen, it seems like the guy is simply cycling though a lot of actions on the screen to make it seem ‘cooler’ than it really is…

Wow, amazing! Hmm I wonder if Autechre will end up using something like this in one of their shows. The visuals on the screen remind me of one of their music videos, so does the music. I think I know what I’m spending Christmas money on now. :)

I wish that performing electronic music live didn’t almost always mean glitching things into oblivion. I liked his sounds, but I don’t like standing around scratching my beard while someone tickles pixels. There’s still the issue of the performance and how it interacts with the people (Though, @ ~ 2:00 it got my head bobbing).

I kinda like this guy’s approach more, at least from a musical standpoint :